DIY Project: Pill bottle party favors

I know today is technically “Replay Thursday”, but I’m desperately trying to show you all the how-to’s of the showers I threw recently before I turn 85!

So today I’m going to show you how to do the cute take-home gifts I made for my friend’s shower.

She’s a pharmaceutical rep, so we thought we’d play it up a tiny bit. I decided to make some candy-filled pill bottles as the take home gift!

Here’s how I did it:

I searched and searched for empty pill bottles. Some pharmacies will sell them to you, but I just bought a box off of Ebay. It was $5 for 50 bottles, plus $10 shipping.

The shipping cost was a bummer to me, but that’s shipping for you. It would’ve been about the same cost from a pharmacy.

I put them all in the dishwasher, labels and all. I was hoping the labels would come off on their own once washed…they didn’t. I just stuck the new label right over the old one and it turned out great anyway!

I bought a big bag of “pill-looking” candy. I happened to get it on clearance from Target, woo hoo! Was $5.99, on sale for $3.38.

Once the bottles were cleaned, I got out my cheap $1 ribbon that I stock up on from fabric stores. I decided to go with a pale pink (so girly, right?!).

I used GIMP and made my own custom “prescription” labels. I used Google to find the RX image, the bar code, and to check out other labels to see what they typically look like. This is the one I liked best:

And I took ideas from it to make my own:

I printed them out on mailing labels that I bought from Xpedx. You can definitely find them cheaper elsewhere, just FYI, but I was in a hurry and it was the closest to me!

I attached the labels, and filled them with candy. I was surprised by how much they held! The bottles said they held about 90 pills each, so it ended up being about 2-2.5 handfuls of candy. I never thought they would hold that much.Buy more than you think you need!

I glued a little bow on each one, arranged them in a cute matching basket, and had them at the top of the stairs for guests to grab as they left the party.

I ran out of time to and couldn’t make a cuter sign, so I HIGHLY RECOMMEND taking the time to make yours much cuter than mine!

And there you have it! Everyone got a kick out of them, and now I have a bunch of leftover pill bottles to use for crafts, candy, kids toys, etc. (It’s nice that they are child-proof!)

Hello, I’m doing a medication presentation in nursing school in a few weeks and I would love to use this template and candy idea as a little treat for my classmate, audience. I already purchased the containers and labels. Can you tell me how to get this template or email me the direct link. Thank you in advance! I’m sure this will win over the crowd.

I love the pill bottle idea. I am a nurse and for nurse week we are trying to make pill containers as little gifts for all of the nurses on the unit. I was wondering if you would be willing to share your label template?

Unfortunately I don’t have it any more, I’m so sorry! It was from YEARS ago on a super old computer. I basically searched “RX label” online and just recreated my own in the label making section of Word. It wasn’t too difficult, sorry I don’t have the template though!

Hi, I'm Jordan

AKA, the Fun Cheap or Free Queen. As a Family Finance and Frugal Living expert, my mission is to redefine frugal and teach you to live an ABUNDANT life...on any budget. It's not only possible, it's FUN. Want proof? Read my story and see... [read more]